Tremors

The day before I got a different, but subtle reminder of where I live.

After classes I had wandered home and was lying on bed, maybe intending to take a nap, maybe listening to the soft hum of people taking a shower and preparing something for their lunches. The building shook for a second. It was nothing out of ordinary, just like a huge truck passing by if you happened to live just next to the street in first floor. Or someone using powertools downstairs, since the house still seems to be sort of in progress. I dismissed the whole thing immediately.

A few hours later a flatmate asked if I had noticed the earthquake. I had no idea what he was on about. When he said that it was around three in the evening, I suddenly remembered. "Oh yeah, it was like a truck driving by your window?" "Yeah, but there's no street under our windows." "Yeah! Yeah. Yeeaaaahhhh, true..." I dissolved into my thoughts. I'm not living on top of the oldest bedrock in the world any longer, but instead on a lot younger and more volatile vulcanic ground. I don't think it's discomforting, but it's something to know. Next time you won't mistake small earthquakes for a truck or something flying way too low.

Yesterday Reykjavík Grapevine or the most important English newspaper/magazine in Iceland invited the exchange students to a party. The invitation said something about a presentation at 21.00, a party afterwards. I had an absolute chuckle at the line "... and by free beverages we mean free bear." Obviously I had to go. I just made the mistake of finding the website of the place before going in. The background music of that site was so damn great I had to listen to it over and over again before leaving! Check out the third track, Aim's Cold Water Music. 'tis awesome.

I arrived late, but since the presentation was also late like everything in Iceland, I didn't miss anything. Sadly there was no Finnish bear-beer to be found, but the folks at Grapevine seemed like great blokes, true top geezers. I talked to the editor for quite awhile after the presentation. If I can't figure out anything else to do for the summer, maybe I'll try to overcome my doubts about my ability to become a journalist and give them a shout.

A few Finns afterwards went to a place where the main appeal is cheap beer. With these prices that's a rather nice appeal, so much can be forgiven. It was still rather interesting to enter. It wasn't packed full, and there were quite a few televisions. A couple were showing taped football, one was showing what looked like one of Sir Richard Attenborough's documents, one was showing gay porn. Hmm.

Oh well, beer was cheap.